Posted: 6/23/06
Texas Baptist Forum
Southern Baptists & alcohol
According to a Southern Baptist Convention resolution, I’m just one step away from hell. I am now in a special status where I am not eligible to serve in an SBC position.
The convention resolution states: “Resolved, that we urge that no one be elected to serve as a trustee or a member of any entity or committee of the Southern Baptist Convention that is a user of alcoholic beverages.”
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“Fort Worth’s greatest crime scene is also the site of one of her greatest miracles. The Darkness sought to shut us down, but the Light shines ever brighter and ever stronger and will not be extinguished.” “For people in America who are a part of my political tradition, our great sin has often been ignoring religion or denying its power or refusing to engage it because it seemed hostile to us. For … the so-called Christian right and its allies, their great sin has been believing they were in full possession of the truth.” “Everything possible must be done to fight AIDS.” |
I have a couple of ounces of Jewish Passover wine in the evening to get rid of a tickle in my throat—it is better than cough medicine. And I might have an “adult” beverage twice a year if my wife and I are on a special date.
I have the Holy Spirit inside of me, who gives me wisdom regarding when I may be a stumbling block. I don’t need Nashville telling me what I can drink.
This action is typical of the pharisaical SBC. They are too busy being whitewashed tombs instead of rescuing those headed for the cemetery.
As a Texas Baptist pastor (and a Souhwestern Baptist Theological Seminary grad), I am fed up with the “be like us or leave us” mentality. I am about ready to leave.
I would rather be known as a “soul-winner” than a “teetotaler.”
William Campbell
Port Aransas
Southern Baptists & Calvin
While reading Roger Olsen’s column “God is sovereign over his sovereignty” (May 29), I remembered The Doctrines of Our Faith by E.C. Dargan, published by the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board in 1905.
In Chapter 19, “God’s Work in Saving,” Dargan discusses election and makes statements considered quite Calvinistic. In part III, addressing “difficulties,” Dargan notes: “If he chooses some, regenerates them and actually saves them, what shall we say to those who are left out of these operations? We can only answer, with all reverence, that this is God’s affair, and he will see to it.”
Obviously, this book is not Scripture and did not settle the long Arminian/Calvinist debate, but it does provide evidence that many early Southern Baptists were quite Calvin-istic, especially by today’s standards.
Another interesting part of the book is George W. Truett’s introduction. Although too long to repeat here, it contains assertions such as: “The time is surely most propitious for a faithful restatement, in every Baptist church in the land, of the fundamental doctrines of God’s word. … Most cordially do I welcome this new book, and most heartily do I commend it to brother pastors everywhere, to the end that they may at once use it as a textbook in a series of doctrinal studies for their young people.”
Could it be that George W. Truett, the man for which Baylor University’s seminary is named, held Calvinistic theological views?
Lex Herrington
Floydada
Complement, not compete
“Arctic Edge, Arctic Edge; Where Adventure Meets Courage.” I can’t get that Vacation Bible School theme song out of my head. I love it.
VBS was great this year—the motto, the verses, the stories and especially the video of the family. On the third-day video, the brother and sister were fighting (as they had the whole trip) over a candy bar and accidentally knocked their father down and broke his leg.
As I watched, I thought to myself, “When brothers and sister fight, the Father is hurt.” I wonder how long it is going to take before we in the family of God get past this kind of immature behavior. We keep sticking our tongues out at others by calling them and viewing them as “the competition,” whether they are another church or another denomination.
Fighting over candy bars ($$). Don’t we realize that it is the Father who is hurt by this kind of attitude and behavior? We don’t realize this, because we are not thinking or looking at him much, but only ourselves, our church, our denomination, our little kingdoms.
The good news is that we can grow up in Christ and get past this embarrassment and begin complementing rather than competing, begin encouraging rather than ignoring. Let’s live today the way we will in heaven. Why wait? Much of the way we treat each other today will not be allowed in heaven.
Bubba Stahl
Corpus Christi
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